Bob Geldof says in first interview that grief over the death of daughter
Peaches is "intolerable", adding that he does not want her sons "wrapped up
in the Geldof life"

Sir Bob Geldof has spoken of the “intolerable” grief of losing his daughter, Peaches, saying: “I’m walking down the road and suddenly… I buckle.”

In his first interview since Peaches’ death in April at the age of 25, Sir Bob said his emotions were still raw.

“I go into organisation mode and that distracts me. But, like anybody else, these things assault you without warning,” he said.

“You could be talking to someone, you could be walking down the road, and suddenly out of the blue there’s an awareness of her. And you know - I buckle.

“And I’ve got to be very careful because walking down the Kings Road there’s paps [paparazzi] everywhere so I have to duck off into a lane or something and blub for a while and then get on with it. I imagine that will be there for a long time.”

Speaking to ITV’s Lorraine programme, Sir Bob said the pain of losing a child was “unimaginable”.

“It’s intolerable. It’s very hard, as everybody must realise, especially if it happened to them too. And then what else do you do? You get on with it,” he said.

Peaches was found dead at her home in Kent and an inquest heard that she had been taking heroin.

The last picture she posted online showed her as a toddler in the arms of her mother, Paula Yates, who died from an accidental drugs overdose in 2000.

Sir Bob said Peaches' sons, Phaedra and Astala, who were 23 months and 11 months old respectively when their mother died, may not remember her - which he does not think is necessarily a bad thing.

“My Mum died when I was six or seven. I have no memory of her. I am shown photos I really have no interest in that much because I have no memory of her," he said.

Peaches tweeted this photo of her with her children

"They are so small, the little chaps, that I’m not sure they’ll have this craving to remember their Mum, and I think that is healthy. They are young enough, you know this terrible expression, to be able to build emotional relationships away from the primary relationship with the mother.

"I know that sounds very cold and empirical but obviously I have had to think about the rest of the family and Tom, their dad, and Keith and Sue, their grandparents, who are amazing people and doing fantastically with the guys.

"I don’t want them becoming wrapped up in the Geldof life. It’s great in some respects, it’s appalling in other times."

Performing again with his band the Boomtown Rats is “cathartic” experience, Sir Bob said, but certain lyrics have taken on new resonance in light of the tragedy.

One song in particular, Diamond Smiles, now reminds him of his daughter and his former wife.

“If I dwell on the words sometimes I find it hard to struggle through the song because they take on whole meanings that I never meant when I wrote them.

“I was writing about a girl I read about in one of the papers: she was a socialite, she went to a posh party and she went upstairs and she hanged herself during the party. I think someone said, ‘Oh, she was the brightest of diamonds,’ and I called the song Diamond Smiles.

“And if I really think about those words it’s too bizarre, whether it’s about Paula or now whether it’s about Peaches.”

The last picture Peaches posted online, showing her with her mother, Paula Yates

Shortly after her death, Sir Bob proposed to his girlfriend of 20 years, Jeanne Marine.

The musician said he had been planning to propose anyway “and then Peaches died and things were very bleak and I thought, how do we move forward? I don’t mean move on - time doesn’t heal, it accommodates. I thought, no, I shouldn’t, but then I thought, no, we need to let some air into the room, we need to let some light into that air.”

The family has received thousands of letters of condolence, which Sir Bob said had been a great comfort.

“We were overwhelmed by people writing to us in the kindest way, obviously complete strangers but who felt it.

“And the nice thing about that was that this young girl had made such an impact, especially on her generation.

“When the Rats got back together last year we went out on tour and I was walking around Leeds, and people would come up to me and say, ‘You’re Peaches Geldof’s dad, aren’t you?’ But I liked it. I liked being ‘Peaches Geldof’s dad’.”

In a second interview, with Radio 2’s Chris Evans, Sir Bob said he was “amazed” by the impact Peaches had on people of her generation, as laid out in the many letters he received from people of her age.

“Her generation - the 20-year-olds, the 18-year-olds - their response was shocked because there you are, life’s ahead of you, you’ve got no concept of the finishing line approaching you. You’re full of fear about what you’re going to contribute to the world what the world expects.

“This kid of mine she seemed for some reason to sum up some sort of attitude and I’m proud of that.”